Actors I love - Sandra Bullock

(Sandra with her Oscar for "The Blind Side" from the 2010 Academy Awards)

Obsessively pouring over the filmographies of my favourite actors is something I always seem to find myself doing. Even now when I should be making some headway with the essay that I have due for next Friday, I find myself instead clicking on the "filmography" tab on the Sandra Bullock IMDB page and happily browsing over the details of her films that I've seen a thousand times. Committing these regular trips down film memory lane to this blog only seemed right. 

Sandra has a pretty big filmography, so this post is probably going to be a little bit haphazard organisation-wise but I'm sure I'll somehow struggle through. The first film I saw her in (if my memory serves) was Practical Magic (1998). Now regarded as a Halloween favourite by many, "Practical Magic" stars Sandra opposite Nicole Kidman as two sisters, detailing their lives from childhood to adulthood and how it was effected by their magical abilities. A truly underrated film in my opinion (as most Halloween favorites seem to be! ie. Hocus Pocus) the film received mixed reviews, although many critics did draw attention to the performance given by Bullock as a highlight. 

"Speed" (1994) also springs to mind when I think of my first Bullock films. Obviously hugely successful and a fantastic film (with a decidedly less fantastic sequel that Sandra has basically disowned) "Speed" is one of the reasons I enjoy her so much as an actor. She began to show her versatility as an actor from the very beginning of her career, jumping from romantic comedies (Love Potion No. 9) to science fiction (Demolition Man) to thrillers (Speed) to drama (A Time To Kill) with ease. Unlike many actors who find themselves typecast for a long time before they begin to establish their independence in terms of choice in roles, Sandra showed capability in choosing projects that would be successful. Only a couple of years into her career she was able to establish herself as a title star (The Net in 1995 featured only Bullocks name on the poster & her picture), a feat that often takes many years of film roles for others. 

Flash forward to 2006 & another stand out for me is "The Lake House". Reunited with her "Speed" co-star Keanu Reeves, "The Lake House" tells the story of two people who live in the same house & fall in love via letter writing, despite being separated by two years (Reeves is in 2004, Bullock in 2006) & their attempts to meet each other. Straight off the bat, this film makes zero fucking sense but I love it. I've watched it countless times and the plot just does not hold up (they try to meet each other when their time zones "meet" but then they must wait another two years for this to happen again) and it baffles me every time. But I cannot help but love it, it's just kinda nice. I find the sheer non sensical nature of the film to be quite endearing & watching it is a definite escapist experience because I forget whatever else is on my mind in order to figure out what the bloody hell is going on.

Both of her Oscar nominated (with one winning) turns are obviously of note. "The Blind Side" is, again another showcase of her diversity as an actor.  During the casting for the film, she almost didn't take the role due to her concerns about playing a devout christian. But she did it. And it was great. She did this film for all the right reasons, and her Academy Award acceptance speech only proves that - 

"I have so many people to thank for my good fortune in this lifetime, and this is a once-in-a-lifetime experience, I know. To the family that allowed me to play them, the Tuohy family, I know they're in here and you'll probably hear her in a minute. Maybe not. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to... do something different. John Lee Hancock, Gil Netter, Alcon, Warner Brothers, the actors, everyone who's shown me kindness when it wasn't fashionable, I thank you. To everyone who was mean to me when it wasn't ... George Clooney threw me in a pool years ago. I'm still holding a grudge. But there's so many people to thank. I would like to thank what this film is about, for me, which are the moms that take care of the babies and the children no matter where they come from. Those moms and parents never get thanked. I, in particular, failed to thank one. So... if I can take this moment to thank Helga B. for not letting me ride in cars with boys until I was 18 because she was right. I would've done what she said I was gonna do. For making me practice every day when I got home. Piano, ballet, whatever it is I wanted to be. She said to be an artist, you had to practice every day, and for reminding her daughters that there's no race, no religion, no class system, no color, nothing, no sexual orientation that makes us better than anyone else. We are all deserving of love. So, to that trailblazer, who allowed me to have that. And this. And this. I thank you so much for this opportunity that I share with these extraordinary women and my lover Meryl Streep. Thank you."

Alongside "The Blind Side" is "Gravity" which is to me, the central jewel in her acting crown. I've expressed my love for this film before on this blog, but it's just on another level. "Gravity" completely takes you in, and it's as much down to Sandra as it is to the score and the effects. Everything she feels, you feel. When she was claustrophobic, I was claustrophobic. It's such a visceral performance and I found myself literally sitting at the edge of my seat from pretty much the very beginning of the film.

To conclude, theres obviously a huge wealth of other great films in her filmography that I could go on about (how good is While You Were Sleeping?! and obviously Miss Congeniality) but this feels like the natural place to end this post. All hail Sandra.

Actresses Roundtable (The Hollywood Reporter)

Don't know why I have only just gotten around to posting this but better late than never! I always enjoy these round table interviews by The Hollywood Reporter and this years actresses edition is a particular stand-out for me. Legitimately so inspiring. 

Albert Hall, Manchester

Albert Hall, Manchester, a photo by alexetchells on Flickr.

Got the opportunity to shoot in Albert Hall a couple of weeks ago. Such a great space, especially when it's completely empty.

True Romance (1993)

"Amid the chaos of that day, when all I could hear was the thunder of gunshots, and all I could smell was the violence in the air, I look back and am amazed that my thoughts were so clear and true, that three words went through my mind endlessly, repeating themselves like a broken record: you're so cool, you're so cool, you're so cool. And sometimes Clarence asks me what I would have done if he had died, if that bullet had been two inches more to the left. To this, I always smile, as if I'm not going to satisfy him with a response. But I always do. I tell him of how I would want to die, but that the anguish and the want of death would fade like the stars at dawn, and that things would be much as they are now. Perhaps. Except maybe I wouldn't have named our son Elvis."

Academy Awards 2014

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR:

Jared Leto - Dallas Buyers Club - WINNER

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS:

Lupita Nyong'o - 12 Years a Slave - WINNER

BEST DIRECTOR:

Alfonso Cuaron - Gravity - WINNER

BEST COSTUME DESIGN

The Great Gatsby - WINNER

BEST MAKE-UP & HAIRSTYLING:

Dallas Buyers Club - WINNER

BEST SHORT FILM (ANIMATED):

Mr Hublot - WINNER

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM:

Frozen - WINNER

BEST SHORT FILM (LIVE ACTION):

Helium - WINNER

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT:

The Lady in Number 6: Music Saved My Life - WINNER

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE:

20 Feet from Stardom - WINNER

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM:

The Great Beauty (Italy) - WINNER

BEST SOUND MIXING:

Gravity - WINNER

BEST SOUND EDITING:

Gravity - WINNER

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS:

Gravity - WINNER

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

Gravity - WINNER

BEST FILM EDITING:

Gravity - WINNER

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN:

The Great Gatsby - WINNER

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE:

Gravity - WINNER

BEST ORIGINAL SONG:

Let It Go - Frozen - WINNER

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY:

John Ridley - 12 Years a Slave - WINNER

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY:

Spike Jonze - Her - WINNER

No real surprises but a lot of well deserved wins (particularly for Spike Jonze for Her, a film which frankly deserved far more nominations than it received). Based on this years nominations though, it was never going to be a disaster like some years previous where an undeserving film swept the night (and by this I obviously mean that year that Braveheart won a load of Oscars, beating out seriously great films such as Dead Man Walking, Babe and Apollo 13 in various categories. SERIOUSLY?! BRAVEHEART?! MEL GIBSON?! WHAT WAS THE ACADEMY DOING IN 1996 TO ALLOW THIS TO HAPPEN?!).

All in all a great Oscar ceremony, well presented by Ellen who did a great job at maintaining the energy of the show (The Oscars is a marathon, not a sprint. It isn't the brief two hours & done that the BAFTAs is!). Although I must say that the red carpet coverage on E! drives me up the bloody wall. I endured an hour this year before changing to the other coverage (that started an hour later) provided on Sky Movies itself.

Why Pretty Woman is kind of insanely dark (and exactly why I love it for that reason)

The film that made Julia Roberts into the Hollywood megastar that the world now knows her as. Pretty Woman is a staple in the romantic comedy drama, largely seen as a touch stone to the films of the same genre that followed it, and considered by many critics to be one of the most successful (both critically and financial) and important films of the genre. But to me, the film takes on an entirely different level of depth that is largely left untouched by other films of the rom-com persuasion. Pretty woman is crazy dark underneath the beautiful surroundings, the upbeat cross-over late 80's/early 90's soundtrack and the combination of the insane attractiveness of both Julia Roberts and Richard Gere. 

Incidentally, Pretty Woman was in fact originally intended to be a dark tale about prostitution (whilst still utilising the L.A setting of the finished film). The original script included the idea that Vivian would be addicted to drugs and that at one point she is confronted outside a club by a drug dealer, prompting Edward and Darryl to come to her rescue. It is also mentioned in the original screenplay that she needed money to "get to Disneyland" so her deal with Richard was that she would stay off drugs for a week in order to get the money. The film was intended to end with her and a prostitute friend on the bus to Disneyland. The character traits including drug addiction were moved from Robert's character onto "Kit", Vivian's friend.

Many actresses tried out for the leading role during the screenplays early stages, including Michelle Pfeiffer, Daryl Hannah, Meg Ryan, Winona Ryder, Molly Ringwald and Jennifer Connelly. Disney were not overly enthusiastic about the idea of Julia Roberts getting the role (which seems so ridiculous now looking back, considering after this film Julia basically ruled the box office for the 1990's, got an Oscar 10 years later & is still hugely successful to this day).

SO ANYWAY, down to what I actually wanted to say with this post. Pretty Woman kicks off, King of Wishful Thinking plays in the credits and all is well. We're introduced to Gere's character in a fairly lighthearted scene involving his ex wife. He borrows his associates car due to his limo being blocked in, and thus the chain of events that make up the rest of "Pretty Woman" begin to roll into motion.

It's not until we meet Vivian that (in my opinion) things start to get REALLY dark. Barely five minutes into the film and we see a landlord-evading Julia Roberts donning a blonde wig walking down Hollywood Boulevard at night. Her pace is slowed down by a scene involving police and onlookers. And what's the situation? Oh nothing, JUST A DEAD WOMAN. The body prostitute who worked the same street as Vivian is being removed from a dumpster whilst tourists from Orlando stand by taking pictures. The incidents in this scene are never mentioned again throughout the film, and are very likely remnants from the original "darker" screenplay that have been left in (I am intrigued to know what the original screenplay would have been like had it made it to the screen). If you look on the wikipedia page for the film, this entire segment of the opening scenes isn't even mentioned. This is the film that is a staple in Valentines day displays, grouped in with more light hearted fare such as When Harry Met Sally, Annie Hall, Love Actually & Sleepless in Seattle (which granted is another kinda dark film, but thats another blog post for another day) which is a testament to the level of denial that has been applied to the darker parts of Pretty Woman. 

We then see Kit, the friend that took Vivian in and introduced her to prostitution. We are introduced to Kit in a confrontational scene between her and Vivian, in which Vivian has found their rent money to be missing. It conspires that Kit has spent the money on drugs. The guy that provided her with the drugs informs Vivian that they intact owe him another $200 and that Vivian could possibly repay him with sexual favours (as I said, DARK AS FUCK). 

Kit and Vivian are seen as being so financially troubled that Kit relies on the fruit used to garnish drinks at the bar as her source of food.  Pretty shortly after this, Richard Gere shows up on his metaphorical white horse and gallops away with Vivian into the sunset. Sort of.

Vivian has a Cinderella-esque transformation and all her problems are solved forever right? WRONGO. Upon discovering that Vivian is in fact a prostitute, Philip (a lawyer who is seen working with Edward throughout the film) attempts to force himself on Vivian in a seriously twisted revenge fuelled attack. Of course Edward comes to her rescue, but it doesn't change the fact that this scene happened. 

Pretty Woman is a film with a much greater level of pragmatic darkness than it's "rom com" categorisation would lead anyone to expect. As I said before, I would have loved to have seen the original screenplay committed to film. Obviously with Julia & Richard still in the leading roles cause they are both very capable of such depth - Julia's done Steel Magnolias, Erin Brockovich, Oceans Eleven & most recently August: Osage County. While Richard incidentally starred in a decidedly dark escort based film of his own 9 years previous to Pretty Woman entitled "American Gigolo". Gere has also garnered critical praise for roles in Primal Fear,  Arbitrage & Days of Heaven. 

Michelle Pfeiffer in "The Fabulous Baker Boys" (1989)

One of the worst Oscar snubs of all time in my view. The best actress award at the 1990 Academy Awards really should have gone to her. Jessica Tandy does give a good performance in Driving Miss Daisy, but Michelle's performance is on an entirely different level. I think Roger Ebert said it best in his review of the film - 

"This is one of the movies they will use as a document, years from now, when they begin to trace the steps by which Pfeiffer became a great star. I cannot claim that I spotted her unique screen presence in her first movie, which, I think, was "Grease II," but certainly by the time she made "Ladyhawke" and "Tequila Sunrise" and "Dangerous Liaisons" and "Married to the Mob," something was going on. This is the movie of her flowering - not just as a beautiful woman, but as an actress with the ability to make you care about her, to make you feel what she feels. All of those qualities are here in this movie, and so is the "Makin' Whoopee" number, which I can only praise by adding it to a short list: Whatever she's doing while she performs that song isn't merely singing; it's whatever Rita Hayworth did in "Gilda" and Marilyn Monroe did in "Some Like It Hot," and I didn't want her to stop."